Yarmouth's top cops look back on 40 years on force

By Ethan Genter Cape Cod Times

Saturday

Sep 7, 2019 at 2:00 PM

WEST YARMOUTH — The unofficial end of summer was approaching. It was 1979, and Frank Frederickson and Steven Xiarhos, both summer officers with the Yarmouth Police Department, could see the sun setting on their seasonal gigs.

Frederickson, 21, was in his third summer supplementing the department. The force would bring on as many as 48 summer officers to handle the massive crowds that came to the town’s famous party scene along Route 28.

Xiarhos was just 20, a New Bedford guy with no real Cape connections, save for an aunt in Sandwich, and just one previous summer of law enforcement experience.

Then they got the phone call that, in hindsight, changed the course of their lives.

The departmentoffered them full-time jobs, and the pair were told to report to the police academy in Barnstable the following week.

“It was Friday night, Labor Day weekend,” Frederickson, now the chief of the police, recalled of the phone call with his partner, Deputy Chief Xiarhos, sitting by his side.

“Getting the news, I was so excited,” Xiarhos said. “It was a dream come true. I was going to be a Yarmouth police officer, a full-timer. That was special to be a full-timer.”

Their first day was Sept. 1, 1979. Forty years later, the cops whose careers started with a few summers on the Cape are still here, having risen through the ranks to the highest positions in the department.

Frederickson and Xiarhos sat down with the Times recently to reflect on policing, their time together and how the town has changed.

After going to the academy, the pair started off as patrol officers. Since 1979, both men have held the rank of field training officer, detective, sergeant, lieutenant and detective division commander.

“Our careers have kind of mirrored each other,” Frederickson said. “It’s been really interesting, if you went through the whole scenario and see how we ended up where we are today.”

Both men are now in their 60s, and they still live to serve and protect.

“We love what we’re doing,” Frederickson said. “From my standpoint, and I think I speak for Steve too, I wish I could do another 40 years.”

The profession has changed over the years. Technology has played a massive role. Frederickson recalled the rigmarole that officers used to go through just to run a license plate. Computers have since changed all of that.

“Today we get information instantaneously, in every cruiser,” he said.

The department also used to deal with many more break-ins and keeping ►of◄the peace calls.

Handling substance abuse has always been a part of policing, but now the opioid epidemic has put it in a whole other stratosphere.

Social media has also changed things. Yarmouth was one of the first departments to extensively use social media, whether it be to help identify suspects, warn residents of scams or put out information about arrests.

That ruffled some feathers in the business community, which criticized the department. Businesses said the posts on the police department’s Facebook page portrayed the town as a crime-ridden community that was to be avoided.

“We were admonished by some people,” Frederickson said.

The department used social media as a way to get their story out, to give a peek into what they do, Xiarhos said. But sometimes things can get ugly, and people can get nasty in the comments.

“It’s a powerful tool but it also can be something that can work against you,” Frederickson said. “We never intend to hurt anybody.”

Overall, Xiarhos felt the department's use of social media has been a good thing.

“The pros outweigh the cons,” he said.

One of the things ►that◄they are proud of is how proactive the department is.

“We’ve made our town safer,” Xiarhos said. “But there is more to go.”

A lot has changed in 40 years, but there's one thing that hasn't: the toll that some calls can take on officers, Frederickson said.

“Some of the terrible things we come in contact with, the situations we see - that will eat at you - whether it’s a car crash, suicide, domestic violence, mental illness, some of the really bad things, they’re still here today just as they were then," he said."They live with you."

Recalling some of the dark days almost drew tears from both men. The department has gone through trials and tribulations, both in the daily calls Frederickson described, as well as the gutting loss of two officers who were killed in the line of duty.

“I can still recall vividly the horrible things,” Xiarhos said. “It always affected me. ... In those days, which is totally different now, you kept quiet. So you saw horrible things, you did your job and you went to the next call. And if you asked for help, or said ‘Oh my god that was horrible,’ you were looked down upon.”

That aspect has changed, and even this week the chiefs went to training on how to help officers who witness horrific scenes.

The town has also changed in the past four decades in parallel with policing. The Cape Cod Coliseum, a 7,200-seat arena on White’s Path, is gone, and the nightclub scene has all but died away. The town has gotten older but it has also gotten safer, Frederickson said.

The pair are different types of cops, which they said helps balance each other out.